Brazilian BBQ

If you have ever eaten at a Brazilian BBQ place, you probably remember the that disk with red and green on it that you thought would mostly be on red but fondly remember you couldnt stop leaving it on green. What you probably dont remember is the smokey flavors in every bite of meat they brought you. In Brazil, when they BBQ they throw some wood on the fire and smoke the meat while it grills. Usually I reserve my smoking for my Weber Smokey Mountain and leave the grilling to my Weber One Touch Kettle grill. However, last week I started to experiment with the idea of adding some smoke to my high heat recipes. 

My first experiment was with some chicken thighs that I wanted to do on the grill instead of the smoker since I didnt have 3 hours. When I usually do this, I dry rub the thighs with my rub and some olive oil and then sear the thighs on both side before moving them onto the indirect side and letting them finish. This time I decided to throw some apple wood on the charcoal and let it get some smoke for about an hour before pulling it off.

While it wasn't as 'smokey' as on the smoker, there was an added flavor profile from the apple wood and there was crispy skin. Something that we dont get on 'low and slow'.

Last night I decided to try it again, but this time with a 1.5 inch thick ribeye. I had read in Cooks Illustrated that if you want to get a really good sear on meat, you should take an aluminum pan and invert it over the coals to superheat the grate. While the grill heated I put some kosher salt, fresh ground black pepper and olive oil on both sides.

First 2 minutes with the meat at 45 degree angle.

2 minutes facing the opposite direction

And then the magic moment when you flip it over and get to see that awesome crust you have formed with the sear.

Now that you know the oustide is nicely cooked, we need to bring the internal temperature up. However before I did that, I threw some cherry wood on the charcoal to turn this BBQ into a Brazilian BBQ.

I placed the cover on and then let it smoke until the steak was medium rare.

Aside from the great color on the steak there was an added sweet smokey flavor to the steak

Reverse Visiting Day

This weekend marked a festive weekend for the Jewish religion - Shabbos Nachamu. On this weekend throngs of families go to the Catskill mountains for a weekend retreat. This weekend also marked visiting day for sleepaway camps which would mean a perfect storm of heavy traffic for the ride home. Thankfully a group of smart minded parents decided to get a van to bring our boys back here instead of us driving and contending with the traffic. This would also mean that a huge BBQ would be in order to welcome our son back home, even for a few hours.

The days festivities started at 8:30 AM when I cleaned out and started the smoker.

I used the minion method of lighting a handful of charcoal and leaving a bunch of unlit charcoal in the bottom to carry the 8-10 hours I wanted for this smoke.

The first thing to go on were the 10 pounds of ribs that I had picked up on a special order on Thursday night.

For the ribs I made my regular Dry Rub plus the addition of brown sugar when I added it to the ribs to help with the bark formation.

For the first part of the smoke I went with pecan and cherry wood.

3.5 hours into the smoke I brushed on some of my favorite BBQ sauce and double wrapped them in heavy duty aluminum foil. I then placed them on the lower rack of the smoker and added the chicken that I had used the same rub (without the brown sugar) and placed that on the top rack. The chicken I smoked for 3 hours with apple wood.

While this was going on, I got busy with the grilling part of the BBQ. In the kitchen I prepared 16 spiral hot dogs and the hamburgers.

When the ribs came off, they were literally falling off the bone

As for my son, I think he appreciated the BBQ and coming home for a short visit

But the thing about BBQ, when its done from the heart, it wants to be shared with friends because that is what true BBQ is all about.

Shabbos Fleishfest

As the 9 days approach and I contemplate how to spend my 9 days of no meat, I also consider what needs to be done to make sure I can survive those 9 days. This usually involves a surge of fleishigs to carry me through this time (keep in mind that milchigs for me is milk in my coffee). Luckily I had company coming for shabbos which meant that I could go a little overboard. I decided to take the day off on Thursday as this would be my first attempt to smoke a brisket.

On Wednesday night I did my spice rub and but the brisket in the fridge to marinate. This brisket is a 2nd cut with the fat cap still on (that I trimmed down a bit)

The next morning, I cleaned out the smoker and setup approximately 30 coals in the chimney and filled the bottom of the smoker with unlit coals. This smoke would be done with a mix of pecan and cherry woods.

Once the charcoal was lit, I setup a rack of ribs on the bottom rack and the brisket on the top rack.

This also gave me an oppurtunity to try out my new wireless thermometer

After about 3.5 hours the ribs were ready to be foiled and the brisket was at 162 and also ready to be foiled. The smoker was holding a steady temperature of 265.

Since I was about 6 hours into my cook and the smoker was still chugging along I decided to go to the store and pick up a chicken to throw on. Once the ribs had been on for another 2 hours, the chicken was on for about 3 hours and the brisket hit 203, everything came off and inside. The brisket was then wrapped in towels and placed in a cooler for 2 hours. The ribs and chicken were done and could rest.

#EverythingIsBetterSmoked

Change needs to come from evolution, not revolution. And the evolution of my BBQ Backyard has progressed to majority of these cooks to be smoked. This weekend I saw beef ribs on sale and thought these would be awesome for this weekend's BBQ.

When Sunday came around I decided to first salt the ribs and then do my rub with the addition of some brown sugar to help with the bark development.

For the smoke I decided to use a combination of pecan and cherry woods which added great flavor and complexity to the final product taste.

After 3.5 hours a good bark began to develop and you can see that the meat is starting to seperate from the bone.

At this point I double wrapped the ribs in heavy duty aluminum foil and gave them a light brush of BBQ sauce and put them back on the smoker for another 2 hours.

At the same time I started the chimney from the Weber One Touch Gold for the rest of the BBQ

After 6 hours the ribs were finished and you can see an amazing smoke ring.

Sunday BBQFest

If you did not BBQ this past weekend, then we need to have a serious talk about missed oppurtunities.

This Sunday saw amazing weather in NY, which I took full advantage of. At the same time I had an alterior motive, I wanted to refine my smoked beef ribs recipe that I have been working on.

After cleaning off some of the thicker fat, I added a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar to my standard rub

While the rub did its magic on the ribs, I did some more rub on some chicken and fired up some charcoal in the chimney

Once ready, I poured the charcoal onto some unlit charcoal and waited for the smoker to come to temperature I added some hickory chunks and then placed the chicken and ribs on the top rack.

After 3.5 hours the chicken was done and the meat started to pull from the bone

The ribs were then double wrapped in heavy duty aluminum foil and I started another chimney for the Weber One Touch

After another 3 hours for a total of 6.5 hours the ribs were ready

BBQ Bar Mitzvah Shabbos

This past Shabbos was 13 years in the making as we celebrated the bar mitzvah of our son. This also meant 13 people for Friday night's meal and another 11 for Shabbos day. An oppurtunity like this could not be passed up as I decided to use both the smoker and the grill for this Shabbos.

The first chimney getting lit

12 Pounds of Flanken Ribs to be smoked with cherry wood

3.5 hours later the ribs were ready for phase 2. They were given a light brushing of BBQ sauce and wrapped and placed in the oven for another 1.5 hours to finish.

A very important beer run was made for the part 2 of the Shabbos Bar Mitzvah BBQ

Finally at 6:30 PM before heading to shul I put the Beer Can Chickens on that were pulled off around 8:15 PM